Self-evident Truths

July 4, 2007

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

Since this day has been set aside to celebrate the Declaration of Independence, I went ahead and read it again this morning. As always, reading it makes me think about those men who risked everything they had to remove themselves and their fellow citizens from the control of a tyrannical government. These were all very well known men, who – if things had gone badly – would have been easily tracked down by the British. They all had families, wealth and respect among their peers. Each one of them could have just kept quite and lived comfortably. But instead they risked it all for their belief that the government should serve the people, not the other way around.

So, they wrote the following (and in my mind the most meaningful) line of this historic document:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

— Thomas Jefferson 7/4/1776

As a result of this document, we all gained the right to representation within our new government. And while I don’t want to discuss politics in this bog, I would ask everyone to reflect on these early ‘politicians.’ They were not only risking their lives and the lives of their family, but their wealth and honor — all to serve the colonies best interest.

The next time we all go to the polls and exercise our right to vote, I think we should think about measuring our choices against the men that signed this document. Would our current choices have the constitution to risk their honor, wealth and lives to serve the community? It’s a tall order to meet, but how much stronger would our country be if our elected officials all had this type of character?